Jammy crescents

It's that time of the year when Tuesday evenings are reserved for weeks in advance, and viewers either get out a biscuit tin or join in a cook-along to follow the weekly themes of GBBO. As much as I'd like to do a weekly bake-along, it's just not feasible. I fancied baking a dairy-based dessert the week before last, but it just didn't happen.
I did bake though a big batch of jammy crescents last Friday, to enjoy with a friend who helps me on Fridays with Eddie (collecting him from the after-school chess club).

I was experimenting with the Organic Barley Flour which was one of the products I received recently from Whole Foods Online. I haven't baked with it before, so it was an unknown territory for me.

While I know what barley is, and use it occasionally in soups, I haven't come across a barley flour before.
Organic barley flour has a mild, slightly nutty flavour, which works great, combined with the other types of flour. It's supposed to be very good for bread making.
The texture of the flour is different, when compared to the wheat flour. When baked in bread, it gives a springy dense texture, similar to sourdough.

Jammy crescents
Ingredients:
40g caster sugar
110g butter, cold and grated
150g Organic barley flour
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 medium eggs
114g clotted cream (a small tub)
apricot and/or cherry jam
flaked almonds

Grate cold butter into a medium sized mixing bowl, add the caster sugar and sift in half of the flour. Rub the butter into the flour, making crumbs. Then add the rest of the flour, baking powder, beat in two eggs and mix in the clotted cream.
I planned to use the soured cream, but forgot to buy it, and used the clotted cream instead.
You will have quite a stiff dough. Roll it into a ball, and place in the fridge for about an hour.

Divide the dough into three parts, roll out a big thin circle, using a rolling pin, then divide each circle into 8 parts. Add about a teaspoon of jam on each triangle and top up with flaked almonds.

Tuck in the thin end under the wider part, making open envelopes.
Bake on trays covered with the foil or parchment paper at 180C for about 15 minutes.
Carefully remove from the tray and place on the cooling baking rack.

The crescents are lovely with tea, hot chocolate or coffee.

They will keep in a tin for 3-4 days without a problem.

Have you tried baking with barley flour? What would you recommend?

Disclosure: As mentioned above, I received a bag of barley flour to try in a recipe.

Pryaniki for Yanka (Russian spiced cookies)

Ever since finishing The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, I wanted to recreate one of the Russian recipes and foods mentioned in the book.
Inspired by the Russian folk tales about the human-bear child, flying ship, warrior princesses, evil dragons, Baba Yaga, and talking animals, Sophie writes with imagination and mastery.

This is a story about Yanka the Bear, who is big and strong. She lives with Mamochka, who has found Yanka outside the bear cave.
"I love living with Mamochka. She's the best mother I could have wished for, but I often wonder about the bear. I wonder if she remembers me. Maybe even misses me. I wonder about the bear almost as much as I wonder about my real parents. The ones who must have lost me - or left me - in the forest".
One day Yanka wakes up only to find out that she has got bear legs...

It's a magical tale of self-discovery, self-identity, our uniqueness and differentness, of what a family and friendship, and true love mean to us. It's a beautiful story, and a future classic.

Sophie Anderson did it again, she has created a story of perfect balance. She's a true tsarina of the reinvented Russian folk tales.

Sophie's descriptions of the Russian food always "taste" good.
"Mamochka pours Anatoly a cup of tea with lemon and passes him a basket of pryaniki - soft spiced cookies with a glaze as white as the snow outside".

Pryaniki are the Russian honey and spice-based cookies. The word itself pryaniki is derived from pryanyi, i.e. spicy. They are often glazed, with a nice crunch on the outside, but typically soft inside, unlike the British gingerbread (It always amuses me when the judges on the GBBO complain that the gingerbread should snap, as if the soft gingerbread is an anomaly).

This is a festive food, rich and spicy. The authentic pryaniki are made with the rye flour. You might find lots of recipes online for the Russian spiced cookies, and many of them use the standard wheat flour, mixed sometimes with cocoa powder to add the colour. But do try making them with the rye flour, the taste is very special.

Pryaniki medovye (honey spiced cookies)
Ingredients:
220g honey
2tsp+ mixed spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, star anise)
80g caster sugar + water
450g rye flour
80g butter, melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2tbsp lemon juice
1tsp baking powder
120g icing sugar + 1 egg white for icing

In a small pan heat up the honey with spices. Set aside.
Make caramel in a small frying pan, stirring caster sugar with a dash of water. The caramel should be liquid and not too thick. Once dark in colour, set the caramel aside.
Mix the honey with caramel in a deep mixing bowl, then add half of the rye flour and mix.
Melt the butter and add to the dough. Once it is cool to touch, beat in the egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, baking powder and add the remaining flour.
Mix the dough, using hands. If the dough is too stiff, squeeze a little bit more of lemon juice.

Roll the dough on a clean working surface to the thickness of 6-7mm.

To create authentic Russian pryaniki, I used a special wooden carved board. You can use either a carved board for shortbread, or a rolling pin with deisgns, and then cut out the shapes. Or just use cookie cutters, like stars.

If using a board with a carved design, place a piece of dough over the carved design (you need to oil the wood first), gently stamp the dough, and use the rolling pin over the dough, then carefully lift the stamped dough.
Cut out the shapes around the stamped image with a knife. This is how the uncooked pryanik looks.

Place the cookies on a big tray, lined with parchment paper. Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. The cookies should be slightly browned, and will still be soft to touch. If you keep them longer in the oven, they will be crisp.

Unglazed pryanik

Once all the cookies are cool, prepare the glaze, using the icing sugar and the egg white. Mix them gently together, but don't overbeat, you don't want a meringue.

Using a brush, add the glaze over cookies. Let the glaze set. Ideally these cookies should rest for 24 hours, but in our case, they were flying off the cooling tray even before I managed to glaze them all.

They will keep in the tin for a long time. In fact, in the "olden days" pryaniki would be made weeks in advance of all major holidays and feasts. They just need to be kept in a tin or box with a lid.

In this recipe I used a Raw Wild Flower Bulgarian Honey from Whole Foods. It's a delicious honey, rich in vitamins and minerals. "It is made from the nectar of a wide variety of wild, pollen-rich flowers, which is why it has a distinctive and unique herbal flavour".

A few days ago I applied to the Bloggers Required assignment to test some products from the Whole Foods Online range, and this delightful honey was one of the products I agreed to try in a recipe (watch this space for more recipes to come!).
As I wanted to make the Russian pryaniki, I thought this was the most wonderful coincidence.

Happy publication day to The Girl Who Speaks Bear!